Jan 7 Obamacare in Action: US Adult Uninsured Rate Plunges to Record Low

Never since Gallup began a daily survey to track the uninsured rate in the United States back in early 2008, has the share of US adults without health insurance been lower. In the 4th quarter of 2014, the rate dropped to just 12.9%, dropping from 13.4% in the previous quarter. The fall in the rate of uninsured tracks quite nicely with the opening of health insurance exchanges for the first time in the first quarter of 2013, when the share of US adults without health insurance stood at 18%.

Keep in mind that this is the uninsured rate for working age adults (18-64) only, and does not include much lower uninsured rates among the youth thanks to many provisions of Obamacare.

Further, Gallup notes that the data shows the Affordable Care Act being most effective for the people who need it the most: low-income individuals.

While the uninsured rate has declined across nearly all key demographic groups since the Affordable Care Act went into effect a year ago, it has plunged most among blacks and lower-income Americans. The uninsured rate among blacks dropped seven points over the past year, while the rate among Americans earning less than $36,000 in annual household income dropped 6.9 points.

The Hispanic population remains a key target of the healthcare law’s marketing efforts, as it continues to be the subgroup with the highest uninsured rate, at 32.4%. Still, the percentage of uninsured Hispanics is down 6.3 points since the end of 2013.

A large part of the Hispanic uninsured rate continues to be plagued by our broken immigration system and the Republican refusal to do anything about it, of course.

Still, with the employer mandate beginning to be enforced this year, look for these numbers to drop even further before the year's end.